Fourth of July Sale on all my Art

I'm having a sale on all the art work that is for sale in my Etsy shop. This sale starts today, June 28 and ends at the end of the day on Monday, July 5.

All art work will be sold at 10% off the listed price and there will also be FREE SHIPPING within the USA.

Thanks for looking!

Accomplishments??

Well I've sort of been busy the last few days. It has been almost a week since my last post here. In some ways I feel like I've accomplished many things and then again, I also feel like I've accomplished nothing. What's with that??

Well here is something that is getting done. I have finished the quilting on this BOM quilt. Now all I have left is the binding. I quilted a portion of this on the HQ16 at the quilt shop and then I brought it home and quilted the remainder of it on my domestic machine. This quilt isn't overly huge so that helped with quilting it at home.

And then, because a quilter just can't have only one project going at a time... I started on a new project. I figured since I have finished the two BOM quilts, well almost finished, that it was acceptable to start a new project. Here are the main colors in the new quilt.

And here is the beginning of it up on the design wall. I have no idea how big this will end up.

I've also completed another journal painting. After I took the photo of this face and was preparing it for Internet viewing in my PhotoShop program, I noticed that she looks like she is sporting a black eye on the left. I always find it interesting what I see in a photo of my work compared to looking at it in person.

I'm not sure how much sewing I'll be able to do this week. My sewing machine started blinking at me over the weekend. It is time to take it in for a service/check up. I could always dig out the old, back up machine.....I guess.

Watermarks on Photos

A comment was left in yesterday's post about how to do a watermark on your photo. Here is my method for adding the copyright information to my photos. I use an older version of PhotoShop, so your photo editing software may vary.

First I open my photo in PhotoShop. Next I adjust the photo to the size I want. Size in this case means the pixel dimensions I want my photo to be. I usually choose somewhere around 500 to 700 pixels for the longest side of the photo. This size tends to be a good choice for a photo that is to be shared on the Internet and if you want to share a photo through email. Photos that have really large pixel dimensions can be slow to load on a browser screen or send through an email system. Another bonus to reducing the size of your photos that you share online is that they are much smaller and lower in resolution so if someone does steal the photo, the reproduction quality of it is not very good. Sure they can show the photo online like you are, but printing it onto something won't give good results.

Once I have the photo to the size I want, I then click the text tool. With the text tool selected, click anywhere on your photo and you should then be able to start typing some text. In PhotoShop this step creates a layer above the photo layer, which is nice if you want to adjust or move the text around, it won't affect the photo layer.

Now type your watermark or copyright information. Once you have the text how you like it (such as font style, type size, color) you can then save your photo. In PhotoShop there is a selection labeled "Save for Web". This will automatically save the photo in the correct resolution for web viewing, which is 72 dpi. Oh, and make sure you have saved the original photo before making all these adjustments. Just in case you need it for something other than web viewing or email sending.

And that's all there is to it! So where do you find the copyright symbol? You can find this symbol in the Character Map on your computer. Open the character map and then scroll through to find it. Click on the symbol and then choose copy. When you are in the text entry mode in your photo editing software you can then paste the symbol onto your photo. Your photo editing software might have a special characters section also, you may find it there.

One thing that I have done to speed up the process above is to create a PhotoShop document with the copyright text already typed. Then when I have my photo open, I open my copyright document and then drag it to my photo. This saves retyping it every time.

I hope this helps those of you who are interested in adding copyright or watermark information to your photos that you share online. Sorry it was a no-photo post.

Another Technicolor Face

Here is the next face I painted in technicolor. I think I like the previous face more than this one.

I didn't do any sewing or quilting over the weekend. I guess I needed a break. Anyway, here is an interesting article that is about the Twelve by Twelve group that I belong to.

And this morning I learned of a great source for copyright information. I am a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), and another member shared a link to the copyright information. This is one benefit of belonging to a group such as SAQA. The sharing of information by the members is wonderful. The copyright information at this link, is directed toward photographers, but it really applies to all of us as we are sharing photos of our artwork here on the Internet. Notice the copyright information on the above photo? I don't always remember to include that in my photos, and really, it's sad that we have to go to extremes to try and protect ourselves....but there are still those people out there that are totally clueless on what is right and wrong and most think they aren't hurting anyone.

Anyway, I hope your Monday is happy and creative.

Technicolor Face

I haven't done much painting in the last few days but finally found some time and grabbed it while I could. I started Sharon's newest class...Faces in Technicolor...and so I applied what I've learned so far to this face. I'm very happy with how she has turned out.

In quilty news, I am almost done with my purple/yellow quilt for the Twelve by Twelve group. All I have left is to finish the edges....woo hoo! I can't share that quilt with you yet....but watch for it on July 1.

Hope you are having an enjoyable weekend.

More Quilt Tops

Yay, I was finally able to get a decent photo of my other Block of the Month quilt. I've shared a bit on this one recently but that was before I had the entire quilt top completed. This is it!!!

The measurements on this right now are 76" x 89". I am loving how this one is turning out.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I've been busy finishing quilt tops. Here is the third one I've been working on lately. Yes! This is the Indian Orange Peel quilt. If you recall I shared it here when I thought I was done piecing it. Well I had to change the outside border. My aunt is going to be getting this quilt when it's done and the previous fabric I had put on for the outer border wasn't working for her. So after some more fabric auditions, this is the one she chose. I am liking this more now that the border is on, than when I had originally auditioned it.

BOM Quilt Top

I have spent the last few days finishing quilt tops. I've now completed both of my BOM quilt tops. Here is the first one. This one has twelve 12-inch blocks and is the smaller of the two I made. I still need to get a good picture of the other one and hopefully I can do that soon.

I think I will plan to quilt the one shown here, myself. I'm planning on having a long-arm quilter do the other, larger quilt.

In other news....I learned something new about my sewing machine a couple of days ago. Silly me wonders why it took so long to learn about this feature. I was bending down to rearrange the foot pedal of the machine as it has gotten pushed too far under the table....when lo and behold, I noticed there was some imagery on the foot pedal toward the heel section. I studied it for a minute and a big old light bulb flashed on. What??? Is that telling me what I think it's telling me? And if so, why didn't I know that before. Well I just had to try it out.

Turns out that if I press down on the heel part of the foot pedal and then lift up right away, the needle will go to the opposite position it is in currently. So if I am sewing and my needle is set to be up when I stop sewing, but my hands are busy and I want the needle down.....all I have to do is press the heel part of my foot pedal. DUH!!!! I lOVE THIS FEATURE! Sort of makes me wonder what else my machine will do that I don't know about.

Tutorial is Done

I've made a start on the golden yellowy-orangey kitty.

And I've finally got the tutorial finished on how I do this. The name of the tutorial is Mosaic Collage and you can download it here. I do hope you enjoy the tutorial. And I do hope if you make a quilt from this tutorial that you will share it with me.

Here is the next face in my journal. I hadn't painted for a few days and I could hear my journal calling to me. So I finally listened.

When I started painting faces again, a couple weeks ago, whenever that was....I decided to get inspiration from an online class on painting faces. I have been a fan of Sharon Tomlinson's painting ever since I became aware of her. Her blog, Norah'S, is fun to follow and Sharon certainly is an inspiration to many. I decided to take Sharon's class thinking there was probably something I could learn from her. I do believe that everyone can teach everyone else something, whether that something is big or small.

One Week

One week from today (midnight June 15) is the deadline to finish your Block of the Month Block #9 and add a photo of it to the Three Creative Studios forums to be eligible for the prize package.

Prize package includes: Blended Quilt Backgrounds by Jean Biddick, Mistyfuse, hand dyed fabrics by Vicki Welsh, package of soy silk roving, 1" x 6" Omnigrid ruler, Wonderfil thread, Fray Check, sewing maching needles, handmade book/journal and a knitted/felted pouch by Terri Stegmiller.

Block #9 is the last block in the Block of the Month series.  We'll be sharing some ideas on finishing the quilts such as border options, sashing, etc.  Stay tuned for that information.  And for those who make all the blocks and put them together into a quilt top, we'll be offering a prize to those who share their quilt top photos.  More information on that soon.

Minty Green Cat

Here is the progress on the Three Cats Quilts. That's my working title, by the way. I'm going to see what kind of names pop into my head as I work on this, I have been tossing around the title of Three Catmigos, but I won't commit to anything until I really need to.

Have a wonderful weekend!

One of Those Days

Well I got the borders on! Woo hoo! But in the process of doing that I was having one of those days. You know, the kind where most things don't go well.

The first thing was that I cut two sides of the inner borders wrong. I cut them all the same length without thinking. So that would have left the four corners with nothing. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do. I had enough fabric that I could have cut two new strips, but, well, I took the short cut and just cut four squares for the corners. I improvised! Have you done that?

Next, it seemed like the fabric just wouldn't cooperate with me and was always moving the wrong direction from where I wanted it to be. Then as I was cutting some of the border strips, my ruler moved on me. Grrrrrrr! I'm seriously thinking about replacing all my rotary rulers with the type that have grippy-ness to them.

I knocked my garbage can over, I dropped the magnetic pin holder and was then playing on the floor, picking them up. And so on, and so on. But thankfully I came out of the room alive and so did the kitties!

Touch

Have you ever wondered who created the words we use? To me, the word touch is a rather strange word and when you say it a few times it makes me wonder who thought of this word and it's current meaning or association. Okay, enough silly rambling...

Here is a painting in the next page spread of my journal. This is the journal that I mentioned a post or three ago that is a re-purposed music book. If you look close, you will see the song titles at the top of the two pages. On the left page the title is Partners, and the right page title is Touch. I used those cues for my painting on this spread. Do you know how hard it is to paint in the fold or binding area of a page???

Here is another painting that I created in a different book. This book is another I found at the thrift store and is a children's board book. It was in sad shape and cost me five or ten cents I believe. These are great little books for painting in and while I know some artists first sand the pages and then add gesso, I skipped the sanding and simply painted over the pages with gesso to prepare them.

Wouldn't it be fun to paint your own story?

Fabric Choices

I've picked the color palette for my "three cats" quilt. Each cat will be in one of the colors shown below. There will be a minty green (bluish green) cat, an orangey yellow cat, and a purple cat. I started preparing the fabrics today and worked until my little kitty muse came along and declared it break time. When that time comes along, there is no working in the studio....she likes to just plop right down in the middle of what I'm doing and won't budge.

And I have been auditioning fabrics for the borders of my Indian Orange Peel quilt. I want to use fabrics that I already have in my stash and so was a bit limited because I don't have too many that are large enough yardage-wise to do the job. But out of the fabric candidates I seemed to like this combination best and have been looking at it for a day or three to make sure.

I hope you all are having a wonderfully creative start to your June.

Playing Catch Up

I'm catching up on more Creative Cue words.

This first word...mother...was given on the weekend of Mother's Day. Here is a patient mother cat with her four little bundles of energy.

Creative Cue 19 - Mother

The next sketch shows the cue word break. In this scene, the kitty caused a break in the tulip stem, and now is taking a break from breaking the tulips. I must be in a kitty mood.

Creative Cue 18 - Break

I sketched these in my sketchbook and then scanned them into my computer. I think I've found a way to darken the pencil lines in Photoshop that I'm happy with. I had to write my steps down so that I would remember them next time I want to do this. Hopefully I'll be able to find my note when next I need it.